Campsie club toasts 20 years

One of the area’s most successful clubs celebrates its 20th anniversary this autumn, thanks to a core of long term committed members.

The Campsie Accordion and Fiddle Club has been keeping toes tapping since the evening some friends got together to play at a silver wedding function.

It soon dawned on founder Billy Hutton that there was a great deal of enthusiasm among local music fans for the sort of music he and his friends love so much,

“It was put to me that there were clubs in places including Dunblane and Balloch,” he said, “so why shouldn’t there be one here as well?”

Early attempts at formalised meetings proved the point.

As regular meetings became an unmissable regular treat for a growing number of fans – and not just from the local area – the programme became increasingly diverse.

And as the club steadily gained a reputation as a convivial and entertaining focus for talented musicians its increasingly broad scope was reflected in the variety to be found in performances.

“Scottish music is great, but anyone who knows us well will tell you we also have recitals by an Irishman whose speciality is Irish dancing music, and we have a lady who plays superb classical music”.

Billy, his wife Alice and several friends were the early-days mainstays of the group that produced today’s thriving club, whose nights typically attract an audience of 100 or more – but they’re still reaching out to music lovers who still, implausibly, haven’t yet heard of their existence.

Billy puts the success of today’s vibrant club down to its hard-working committee members.

Meanwhile there’s still room for new recruits.

“Hardly a meeting goes by when we don’t see one or two new people who have only just found about us,” said Billy.

“We’re delighted to see them too – getting ‘new’ people involved is great”.

The historic 20th anniversary session of the club is in October, but the first post-holiday night will be on Tuesday, September 1 (and first Tuesday of every month thereafter), at 7.30pm in the Glazert Country House Hotel.